Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a collision avoidance apparatus and method for a vehicle, and more particularly, to a collision avoidance apparatus and method for a vehicle, which are capable of maintaining a braking force and assisting a steering force by providing a braking control signal and a steering control signal to a wheel of a driver's steering intention direction during braking for collision avoidance, thereby achieving lateral avoidance.
Description of the Related Art
Generally, a vehicle is equipped with a collision avoidance system so as to avoid collision with an obstacle (for examples, other vehicle) located in front of the vehicle or behind the vehicle. Such a collision avoidance system assists a driver to drive safely by avoiding collision with obstacles located in front of the vehicle or behind the vehicle.
Conventional collision avoidance systems are disclosed in Korean Patent Publication No. 1996-0000634, and so on. A distance between a self vehicle and an obstacle is measured using a distance sensor (for example, a radar or an ultrasonic sensor) or an image sensor (for example, a camera), and a driver is informed of a collision risk by a warning sound generated when a vehicle approaches an opposite vehicle within a predetermined distance, depending on the measured distance and the velocity of the opposite vehicle.
Such conventional collision avoidance systems prevent collision by simply measuring the relative velocity and the distance. However, since a braking distance is changed according to a vehicle condition and a driving road condition, a vehicle cannot avoid an obstacle (for example, an opposite vehicle) predicted to collide with. Hence, a probability of collision with the opposite vehicle is increased.
In particular, when an abrupt longitudinal collision risk during driving is predicted, a driver tries to avoid collision by braking. When an input value of a brake pedal pressurized by a driver is large, a braking force greater than a target braking force is applied to operate an antilock brake system (ABS). At this time, a longitudinal collision risk caused by deceleration is reduced, but a steering force is lost and thus a lateral avoidance may be impossible.